


10 stupid things harry wants to do before he dies

by thetruthmayvary



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff, Humor, Light-Hearted, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-06
Updated: 2012-11-06
Packaged: 2017-11-18 03:15:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,494
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/556273
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thetruthmayvary/pseuds/thetruthmayvary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Louis finds an old list entitled 10 stupid things I want to do before I die, written in Harry's handwriting, he decides to use it to give his boyfriend the best birthday gift ever.</p>
            </blockquote>





	10 stupid things harry wants to do before he dies

“I found your list,” Louis said, a broad wide grin on his face and an ecstatic gleam in his eyes.

“What?” Harry asked, confused.

“Your list?” Louis repeated, like it was insanely obvious what he was referring to, “I found it.”

“Can you be a little bit more vague, I beg of you!”

Louis rolled his eyes at his boyfriend, and took a seat next to him on the couch. “10 stupid things I want to do before I die – ring any bells?”

“Where did you find that?” Harry asked laughingly. He had some obscure memory of making that, but it must have been years ago. It was probably immensely embarrassing,  and Harry found himself genuinely grateful that there was nothing he needed to hide from the blue-eyed boy, he was the one person in world who knew him for who he really was, and accepted him for exactly that.

“Well, I was going through some old documents, you know, in that drawer you've been molesting me to clean out for weeks, when, what do you know, I stumble across this little piece of gold!” He retreated a folded piece of paper from his jeans pocket and started waving it around like crazy.

“There are some very interesting things on here, Haz! Tell me again, how old  _were_  you when you wrote this?”

“I don't know, 14, 15., something like that,” Harry said and then, as Louis dodged his third attempt at trying to grab the paper, he added eagerly “Are you going to let me see that?”

“Do you remember what's on here?” Louis asked, lowering his eyebrows and eyeing the younger boy expectantly.

“Not really...That's why I want to see it, Lou!”

Louis dodged another one of Harry's attempts, a more aggressive one this time, that sent them both backwards on the couch. Louis pushed Harry of off him, and put the list back into the safety of his pocket.

“Well, this is even more perfect then,” Louis exclaimed to his baffled boyfriend. “You see, I decided that this list is going to be your birthday present.”

“A list of things I want to do, that I wrote years ago is going to be my birthday present? Well that will certainly beat the 1987 TV guide my great aunt Sophie gave me 2 years ago.”

“It certainly will, along with all the others gifts you've ever received, because it's not the list itself that's the present it's  the fulfilment of all your wishes on there.”

Louis saw that Harry's eyes were still wide and uncomprehending, so he shook his head a few times and continued the explanation.

“On your birthday, I'm going to make all this things come true for you, and the fact that you don't remember what those wishes even were is going to make the whole thing even better, 'cause you'll be finding out about them just before they become a reality.”  With those last words Louis lifted his arms up, smiling radiantly, as to show how brilliant of an idea it was.

Harry smiled before asking “And how exactly are you going to do that, Lou? I may not remember precisely what's on there, but I'm pretty sure that there's at least one thing there that can't be fulfilled in a day.”

“You let me worry about that,” Louis said determinately.” I'm going to make it the best birthday ever, trust me,” he said and then leaned forwards to press a soft kiss to Harry’s still smiling lips.

-

Six days later, on the first of February, Harry and Louis were sitting at the kitchen table in their little flat, Harry still mumbling about how unfair it was for Louis to wake him up so early on his birthday, while they were devouring the pancakes Louis brought from the pancake house from down the street.

“Don't eat too much, you might regret it later,” Louis instructed, while totally ignoring the advice himself.

“Why?”

“You'll see,” was all Louis offered him in response.

When they finished their breakfast, Louis dragged the green-eyed boy to his car, all the while refusing to tell him when they were going.

Harry appreciated his boyfriend's enthusiasm, but he could hardly say the same about the secrecy with which he approached this whole birthday wish fulfilment thing. Why couldn't he just tell him what exactly was on the list and what was the plan for the day?

They arrived at the centre of London, and walked for at least 10 minutes towards the Tower Bridge, Louis still successfully avoiding giving any useful information and just smiling mischievously, before he pointed to the cage that was hanging from a crane nearby.

“Your first wish,” he proclaimed excitedly. “Bungee jumping!”

“What? You made that up, I didn't write that!”

“But you did Harry, you did,” Louis said dramatically, grabbing Harry's wrist and leading him towards the crane. 

“No, Lou, I'm serious, I don't want to do this,” Harry said, desperately trying to stay put and not move even an inch closer to the cage the older boy wanted him to jump from. 

“I think you do, Haz, you're just a little scared. But don't worry, I'm jumping too! I can even go first if that would make you feel better!” Louis tried to arrange his features in what he believed to be a convincing expression, but Harry was still looking at him with hesitant eyes and refused to walk to where Louis was trying to lead him. 

“You're not going to spoil my gift for you, are you?” Louis now tried to look hurt, but from his eyes it was evident that he found this whole thing highly amusing.

“I hope my other wishes are better than this, or I'll be force to conclude that the fourteen-year-old me was a complete idiot,” Harry said, shaking his head, and finally letting the other boy drag him towards the crane. 

Louis smiled triumphantly, squeezing the taller boys hand in a  _everything will be okay_  sort of way. 

Harry thought he was doing just fine, all things considered, until their cage was lifted to its final height. His stomach started doing back flips then, and he couldn't even enjoy the spectacular view of London that was stretching in front of them, because all his mind seemed to processed at the moment was how he was about the jump from 160 ft. And probably die. 

Louis went first, as he said he will, and he hasn't shown any sign of fear prior to the jump. He just kissed Harry swiftly, said “See you in a bit!” and plummeted down, screaming his lungs out.

When they pulled him up, he was all hyped up from the adrenaline in his veins, and started yelling how he loved life, and how they're definitely doing this again, possibly in the summer when the whole experience will be even better because it won’t be so freaking cold.

The staff attached the ankle straps to Harry then, and did a number of safety checks before telling him he's good to go.

Harry was still feeling nervous, though a little bit reassured by the fact that Louis made it through safe and sound.

Louis was behind him, and murmured “You can do it! Just jump and enjoy the feeling!” in his ear. He then kissed his shoulder and stepped back to give him some room.

Harry turned around just to look at his face once more, and when he saw him smiling and nodding, he jumped.

It was the most intense feeling he's ever experienced – the ground was getting closer and closer at an unbelievable speed, and he was screaming without even realizing it. Before he even managed to grasp the fact he was freefalling, it stopped and he started bouncing. He bounced a few times, before his body steadied, and they started to pull him up.

“I did it! It was amazing,” he cried out when he was in the cage again, still catching his breath.

“Yes you did, and I told you it will be," Louis said while embracing him in a tight hug. “Now off to fulfil your second wish.”

They were in the car again, Louis once more refusing to let Harry know anything before the time is right. When Harry saw where they were headed, he couldn’t conceal his surprise.

“Museum of London? I'm pretty sure that wasn't on the list.”

“No, but there was something else, something a little bit tricky...”

“What?” Harry asked, wondering what he could've written that would bring them here.

“Time travel,” Louis stated simply.

“Time travel? A  _little_  tricky you say,” Harry chuckled. Well, he for sure was ambitious as hell back then.

“Yes, just a little bit,” Louis chuckled as well. “So the only way to make that come true, for now at least, is to create an illusion that you've gone back in time. This lovely place is going to help us do that.”

“You do know I've been here before, don't you?”

“Yes, but I'm pretty sure you haven't pretend you were actually time travelling before, have you?”

“No, I guess not,” Harry said as he took the hand Louis was holding out for him.

They went straight to the Roman gallery, because Louis concluded that going back to the time of the Romans should be interesting enough. Harry had to admit, it was the most fun he ever had in any museum. Louis even spun him around before they entered the gallery, as to “bypass the time dilation”.

“I have to admit, as much as I loved the second century, it’s nice to be back in the 21st one,” Louis announced as they exited the museum.

Harry laughed  at that, and Louis, as always, couldn’t help but stare at the dimples that appeared on each of his cheeks. “Yes, I do prefer jeans over toga, no matter how nice and breezy it may be.”

“Well, functionality does beat breezy any day,” Louis agreed with a smile.

“So what's next?” Harry's excitement was getting ridiculously close to Louis' now, all the doubts he had this morning seemed to disappear.

Louis pondered for a moment if he should answer Harry's question or not, until he decided that he might as well tell him since their next destination is only a 5 minute walk away anyway.

“This was a very interesting one, Haz...You wanted to play roulette and put all your money on green.”

Harry laughed at that, thinking how he definitely watched too many movies as a young adolescent.

“So, we're going to a casino to test our luck. Of course, we won't be investing  _all_  our money, that would be just plain dumb, but I think 50 pounds will do the trick.”

“You  _are_  aware of the fact that we're going to lose those 50 pounds? Maybe we should cut that in half, just to be save.”

“Where's your optimism gone, Curly? We're going to win,” Louis said matter-of-factly.

“Yes, of course we are,” Harry said sarcastically, “and even if we don't we can always travel back in time, and never invest the money in the first place. “

“That's the spirit! Now we even have a back-up plan,” Louis said and wrapped his arm around Harry's shoulder as he lead him through the front door of the Gala Casino.

Fifteen  minutes later the two boys came out through the same door, 50 pounds lighter.

“Well, we tried.”

“We could've tried with 10 pounds,” Harry answered, even though he couldn't bring himself to actually be mad at the older boy for wasting money like that.

“It's your birthday! Why save money? Anyhow, before we hop in the car again, we're going to have to improvise a little for this next wish.” And with that Louis detached himself from Harry, and stopped the first person he saw walking by.

It was a rather pretty woman in her thirties, who was typing frantically on her phone as she was pushing her way through the crowd.

She didn't appreciated much when a young stranger held her by her shoulders, smiling at her intently.

“What do you want? Let go of me,” she uttered, her look of disgust somewhat soothed as she managed to take a good look at the handsome face in front of her.

“Sorry,” Louis said quickly, “but I need to know what do you want the most at this specific moment?”

“Excuse me?”

“What do you want? What do you need? What would make you happy right now?”

The woman seemed even more puzzled now. She was having hard time understanding what this man wanted from her. The boy who was with him, standing a little behind, seemed just as confused as she was.

“Can you please just answer me?” Louis asked, growing impatient now, but still smiling because he wanted to come across as friendly as possible.

“I don't know...Why are you asking me this?”

“Because my friend here –“ he pointed at Harry, “-and I want to make it come true for you."

“We do?” Harry asked, his eyebrows shooting upwards. Louis gave him a look that said something like  _yes, we do, I’ll explain later_.

“Why?” The woman asked, still confused about the whole thing

“Let's just say we're on a mission.”

“That's just ridiculous,” the woman answered, trying to leave and get back to her own business.

“You know what’s ridiculous? Louis challenged, cutting the woman's path, “you not wanting to be happy.”

“I want to be happy,” the woman said defensively.

“Then tell us what would make you happy right now.”

 “You know what would make me happy? A nice Starbucks frappuccino, an interesting book and some peace and quiet. But can you get me that? No! So let me go, I have a meeting I can't be late for.”

She walked around him then, her patience long gone, and hurried down the street.

Louis ran after her, catching up with her easily and coming to stand in front of her once more.

“But we  _can_  get you that. It shall all be waiting for you, once you're done with work. Just tell us the time and the place,” Louis said swiftly, celebrating on the inside that the woman's desires were actually something they could provide.

The woman had obviously expected them to give up by now, so she was standing there not knowing what to say. Telling two strangers the address of her office and her work hours didn't seem like the smartest thing to do, but they did seem genuine and nice, even the taller, confused one, and her curiosity was getting the best of her. 

“I'll be finished by 4 p.m. And I work in that building there,” she pointed at the dull, grey construction on their left.

“Thank you, I'll see you then,” Louis said with a smile and turned to leave, nodding to Harry to follow him.

“What the hell was that?” Harry asked as soon as they’ve walked far enough to not be in the woman's earshot anymore.

“It's one of your wishes, Haz. You wanted to make someone's day."

“So were going to be waiting for her after work with a frappuccino and a book and that's going to make her day? What about peace and quiet? How are we going to get her that?”

“Well, she's going to have to take care of that one on her one. It's still a nice gesture, though.”

It's a lot nicer than the ones you do for me, Harry teased.

“Now that's just not true,” Louis answered, pulling him for a kiss. “I'd like to believe that I do many nice things for you,” he whispered in his ear.

Harry wanted to respond with some cheeky remark, but the older boy's breath down his neck and the way his hands were holding him closer than it was appropriated in a busy street like the one they were in, made his mind unable to work properly.

When Louis finally let go of him and stepped back, Harry forgot that he was even planning on responding.

-

Since they had almost two hours before they had to be back in that street to cross another thing from Harry's list, they decided to use that time for lunch, which their growling stomachs greatly appreciated.

At 4 o'clock they found themselves standing in front of the grey, six-story building, Louis holding a caffé vanilla frappuccino, and Harry a copy of The distant shore, by Mariam Kobras. The two of them had absolutely no idea what book to buy, so they asked the lady in the book store to recommend them something. The lady's face lightened up so much at that moment that Louis later joked that they could abandon their mission, because obviously they've already made someone's day.

They waited for at least 10 minutes, before they spotted a familiar red-headed woman walking out the glass door.

Louis wanted to yell to stop her, but he remembered that he didn't know her name. So, once again, he ran to catch up with her, careful not to spill the drink in his hand.

“Hi,” he said, once she noticed his hand on her shoulder and turned around to face him. “We come bearing gifts as promised.”

By that time, Harry caught up too, and held the book in front of her with both hands, smiling widely.

The woman's returning smile was astonishing, and it became clear to the two boys that she never expected them to even show up, let alone make her wish come true.

“I...Tha-thank you...But, why? Why would you do this?”

“Like I said before, we're on a mission,” Louis responded and turned to look at Harry, who beamed at him.

“Now, take this,” he said while handing her over the drink and the book, “go home, acquire some peace and quiet and enjoy.”

“I will,” she assured them, “thank you again.”

“No problem,” Harry answered, still beaming.

They said their goodbyes, and as they turned to leave, the woman called after them.

“By the way...Mission accomplished.”

The couple responded with matching smiles before they headed off in the opposite direction.

“Where to next?” Harry asked after they got back to the car.

“Heading back home, love.”

“What? But there are still six things left on my bucket list.”

“Yes, and don’t worry, you’re going to get them all,” Louis assured him, amused by his worry, “but, believe it or not, some of your wishes can be fulfilled in the comfort of our own home.”

 -

A little while later, Louis was unlocking the familiar door, and before he let Harry in, he covered up his eyes, ignoring the green-eyed boy’s protests to the unexpected motion.

He then walked him in, closed the door with a kick from his right foot, and removed his hands from the other boy’s eyes.

Harry blinked rapidly a few times, and when his vision cleared he noticed that their living room had undergone a drastic makeover. The entire back wall was covered in a huge poster of a sunny beach with a few surfers riding the waves. Little Australian flags were sticking out of every place possible - the vase that was placed on the coffee table, picture frames that held the smiling faces of their families, the bowl that was also placed on the coffee table and that held some weird dark paste on toasts. Stuffed koalas and kangaroos were scattered all over the couch, there was a little model of the Sydney opera house on the TV stand and in the corner, Harry noticed with a grin, was placed a life size cardboard cutout of Hugh Jackman.

“Welcome to Australia,” Louis said, obviously very pleased by Harry’s surprised reaction.” I wanted to get Nicole Kidman, but they were all out,” he added disappointedly, while gazing at the smiling Hugh in the corner.

"Hugh will do just fine," Harry laughed. He was amazed by the effort Louis put in to this, he even had Kylie Minogue playing in the background. His expression  changed from amazement to confusion as he remembered that Louis was with him the entire day.

“But who did this? None of this was here when we left...Unless you drugged me to make sure I don’t notice a thing.”

Louis let out a bark of his beautiful laugh at that. “No drugs were involved, don’t worry, I had the lads arrange all of this while we were bungee jumping and time travelling and all of that...”

“Well, its amazing, thank you,” Harry said, smiling wildly. “This is the one wish that definitely stayed with me.”

“Until we can make it come true for real, we can enjoy this little make believe paradise,” Louis said as he took Harry’s hand and dragged him to the couch, the two of them lunging down in the sea of stuff animals.

“Vegemite?” Louis took one of the toasts from the bowl and offered it to the other boy.

“Ughh... no offence, but that doesn’t look that good to me.”

“Yeah, it doesn’t taste much better either, but we’re in Australia and we’ve got to try some of their iconic cuisine.” Louis brought the toast to Harry’s mouth and waited for him to have a bite, then laughed out loud as Harry made a disgusted face and spit it back out in his hand.

“It tastes even worse than it looks.”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Louis offered, even though he didn’t look sorry at all.

“I’ll make you feel sorry,” Harry said playfully as he launched himself on him, aiming for his neck. He pretended he was about to bite his head off, but instead he just placed a soft kiss on the exposed, warm skin there.

He then continued placing kisses all the way up his jaw line, until he reached his lips. He parted them slowly with his tongue, and started kissing them more forcefully.

Louis responded with an equal amount of passion, but as Harry started pushing his tongue further down his throat and when his huge hands found their way under his shirt, he stopped him, looking horribly reluctant.

“There will be enough time for that later, don’t forget, there are still 5 wishes to go.”

Harry backed off disappointedly, but before he could make any kind of remark, Louis was already on his feet.

He disappeared in their bedroom for a moment, before he came back carrying the electric piano he usually only took out while drunk and trying to prove to people that he  _indeed_  can play it, even though he always played the same two songs.

He sat down, placed the piano in both of their laps, before announcing “So, one of your wishes was to learn how to play an instrument, and since I am such an amazing pianist, I’m going to be teaching you.”

Harry couldn’t suppress his laugh at the wording “amazing pianist”, but he decided to just go with it.

“And what shall you be teaching me to play?”

“The pink panther theme song,” Luis said and caused another bark of laughter to escape from the other boy.

“Don’t laugh,” Louis said defensively, “I was planning on teaching you a cover of Ed Sheeran’s Kiss me, but as it turned out, that one was too hard even for me to learn. “

Harry was now actually rolling on the couch from how hard he was laughing, and Louis couldn’t help but laugh, too. Only he pulled himself together much sooner than his curly-head boyfriend.

“Come on, Harry, get serious so we can get down to business.”

Half an hour later, Louis finally declared Harry’s version of the song acceptable, which meant that they could cross another thing from Harry’s list.

Louis disappeared again, going to the kitchen this time and returning with a platter that held a huge bowl full of Oreos, and a glass of milk.

Harry was eying Louis and his platter curiously, silently asking Louis for an explanation.

“Eat Oreos until you feel the need to throw up,” was all the explanation Louis deemed necessary.“I think this time I won’t be joining you.”

“That’s not fair,” Harry cried out.

“Hey, it’s your bucket list, not mine.”

Harry didn’t consider that a good excuse, seeing that Louis participated in all other of his wishes, but when Louis started nudging him and pointing to the mountain of cookies in front of him, Harry obliged anyway and started eating.

The first twenty tasted really good, the next ten were bearable, but any after that were definitely too much.

When two thirds of the bowl were empty, Harry laid back on the couch and murmured “No more”, his mouth still full.

Louis obviously agreed it was enough too, because he got up again and carried the platter back to the kitchen.

He came back carrying yet another platter, this time with a bottle of tequila, two shot glasses, a tiny plate with salt, and an another one with lemon.

“You can’t be serious,” was all Harry managed to say, before Louis started to explain what exactly his next wish was.

“You wanted to try tequila, and even though I know that you’ve already done that, I didn’t think trying it again could hurt.”

“But I just stuffed myself with Oreos, can we do this a little later?”

“No, we cannot,” Louis said as he filled up their glasses.

“Why not?”

“Because, I’m sort of anxious to get to your last wish.” Harry couldn’t not notice the smugness on his face, and he had a feeling he sort of knew what his last wish was.

Which was what made him agree to take shots now.

“Okay, lets do this,” he said before he licked the salt off of Louis’ fingers.

After each of them took three shots, they concluded it was enough, as they didn’t want to get too drunk. 

“So, what do we have left?”

“The last two are the ones that already came true for you – one of them being admitting you’re gay.”

“Yeah, I’ve done that,” Harry agreed, remembering the conversation he had with his family nearly 2 two years, the one that went surprisingly well. “So what’s the other thing?”

“Something I’m about to make come true for you all over again,” Louis whispered in his ear, before taking his hand and leading him to their bedroom.

Harry smiled and went willingly, knowing now for sure what the last thing on the list was.

As they closed the bedroom door, Louis detached his lips from Harry’s for a moment to whisper “Happy birthday” in his ear.

Harry whispered “I love you” in response before he crushed their lips together once more. A quick thought about how lucky he was to have such an amazing boyfriend crossed his mind, before that same boyfriend’s lips and fingers made sure to leave him thinking about only one thing.


End file.
